THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. I3I 



for showing near its mouth at Oakville, the Loraine (or Lorraine) 

 shales of the Hudson river group on the eastern side, and on the 

 western, the red Medina shales and sandstones. Moreover, in the 

 Twelve Mile Creek valley near Bronte Station, extends a bed of 

 stratified gravel, now eroded, showing clearly the ancient character 

 of the stream. This bed of gravel is about seventy-five feet thick, 

 and is made up largely of Hudson River fragments. 



Of similar formation are the gorges of the " Grindstone Creek," 

 Waterdown, and " Glen Spencer," at Dundas — glens with steep, 

 wooded sides, the former almost straight in its course, the latter 

 much curved ; glens carrying moreover upon these sides strips of 

 stratified sand and gravel ; glens of great breadth and depth. 



Turning the escarpment at or east of Copetown, and continuing 

 along the ridge to Niagara, we encounter a series of creeks, some 

 larger, some smaller, which have cut their way down through 

 Niagara, Clinton and Medina rock, and of course, through those 

 overlying deposits known as the ancient Lake Beaches. They are 

 known as the Albion Mills Creek, the Fifty, Forty, Thirty, Twenty, 

 Sixteen, Fifteen and Eight Mile Creeks respectively. To these we 

 must add sundry dried up torrent beds, which present similar 

 features to the creeks ; and these features are like those above 

 referred to, namely — glens or canyons of large or of small size, cut 

 into the rock, and winding, straight-walled valleys in the plain. 

 From the sediment brought down by the Albion Mills Creek, Bur- 

 lington Beach has been made ; and at the mouth of each of the 

 others, bars are being built of larger or of smaller volume, according 

 to the usual conditions of more or less material, and the set of the 

 Lake currents. Like the other creeks on the north side of the 

 escarpment, too, the present streams exist in vastly diminished 

 volume. Picturesque waterfalls, moreover, are another feature well 

 marked in the still existing streams, while, in the dried-up water- 

 courses, their action can be plainly noticed. 



The canyon of Niagara, so well-known to all, and yet so sublime 

 in its magnificent, ocean-like rapids, and its majestic sweep of water 

 down the steep cliffs, should detain us for a moment. For here, 

 before our eyes, we see the work of erosion and excavation going 

 on ; here we have the key to our lesser river-valleys, those excepted 

 which have resulted from the slow-weathering of former joints and 

 fissures. We must remember, too, that Niagara is, after all, a very 



